Montpelier Area Mountain Bike Association

Irish Hill
East Montpelier
North Branch Park:

To report adverse trail conditions or blow downs, please email Dan Voisin at dtvoisin (at) gmail (dot) com.

As we grow, this page will contain more information and maps about local trails. If you have access to a GPS unit that we could use to help create maps, please contact rbradwatson@yahoo.com. Anyone with experience with GIS software should also pipe up. Thanks!

Irish Hill, Berlin

Open May 15th (Berlin Town Forest property) and May 31 for Boyer State Forest to November 1.

A completely MAMBA-built trail network on Irish Hill above Berlin Pond Reservoir in Berlin. See Yahoo Maps for the trail head location. Take Berlin St up from Montpelier and continue straight past the left turn for the hospital. Crosses VT 62 past Town and Country Honda and the Shaw’s Plaza. Take a right on Town Clerk Rd, go under the Interstate, then take a left on Paine Turnpike. Bear right to go around the right side of the pond (Brookfield Rd.). Road climbs and then bends sharply to left. Continue straight to the parking area about 1 mile up on the right. Trails begin on the right side of the ORV road.

• PDF Map:  MAMBA Irish Hill Berlin Bike Trails

Note: This is the only trail on Irish Hill which MAMBA is involved with. As of July, 2008, we’ve been notified by the Berlin Conservation Commission that there is an unapproved trail elsewhere on Irish Hill; as of June 2011 illicit trail building on private land continues. Please do not ride any unapproved trails, and absolutely DO NOT build new trails without checking with MAMBA first. We’ve been working for five years to secure permission to build trail on State, Berlin, Montpelier, and private land on Irish Hill. Any unauthorized building/riding might destroy all of that work.

 

East Montpelier Trails, East Montpelier

East Montpelier Trails, Inc. has secured trail easements and built some very nice singletrack just a few miles northeast of Montpelier.

The East Montpelier Trails network allows mountain biking (see exception below), but is primarily a walking/hiking system. If you ride there, please make every effort to share the trail in a responsible manner. Respect the fact that many people walk these trails for their silence and solitude.

Please note that the section between Center Road and Templeton Road (#2 on the map) is currently CLOSED to mountain biking at the landowners’ request. We hope to work with the landowners to arrive at a compromise, but for now we must respect their wishes. It is within their rights in the trail easement to restrict certain uses (biking) if they are deemed to cause a problem. Please DO NOT ride this section. Use Center and Templeton roads to connect around it. If you have questions about this situation, contact rbradwatson@yahoo.com. Thanks.

Maps of the current East Montpelier Trail network can be found at their website: www.emsignpost.com.

North Branch Park

During the summer of 2005, collaboration between MAMBA and the Montpelier Parks Department led to the construction of a mountain bike trail in the North Branch Park.  The trail, affectionately known as GB Boulevard after our good friend and Parks Commissioner Geoff Beyer, begins on Cummings Street in Montpelier and connects to the upper corridor trail before turning in to EMTI’s Sparrow Farm Trail (SEE NOTE BELOW).  This trail was the result of over 2000 volunteer hours and several grants.  Please respect other users by controlling speed and staying on the trail.  Other trails within North Branch Park, such as the Long Loop Trail, are off limits to bikers.

Sparrow Farm Trail Update

After MAMBA completed some needed trail restoration work in the summer of 2010, this trail has been re-opened to mountain bike use.

Riders using this great connecting trail should respect the treatments that have been done as well as recognize when riding the trail during wet periods or wet conditions results in producing traces of negative impact.  The Sparrow Farm trail in East Montpelier is a popular trail used by several user groups in addition to biking so WATCH YOUR SPEED and respect others on the trail when proceeding downhill.  Heavy rains this spring have created wash outs along the edges of steep sections of the portion of the Sparrow Trail shared by VAST.